 In
1896, Albert Einstein repudiated his German citizenship (and also,
incidentally, his Jewish faith) citing Germany's "intolerable
chauvinism" and shortly thereafter became a Swiss citizen. He traveled
extensively between the US, Germany and Switzerland until 1932, when he
left Germany for the last time. He, and a lot of perceptive,
informed Germans, knew instinctively when it was time to go, and that
it was no longer possible to change the country from within.
It's time to acknowledge that last month's election was not just a
cynically manipulated campaign by neocons to hold on to power. It was
won, many believe, on the strength of anti-gay (anti-minority)
initiatives on the ballot in a dozen states, initiatives that drew a
lot of angry, frightened people to the polls to vote against allowing
civil liberties for people they don't like, and in the process to vote
for the self-avowed 'war president' who supported these initiatives,
and other initiatives that reintroduce and re-justify discrimination
against women, people of colour, the poor, and other minorities. It's
time we realize that this was not so much a referendum on the incumbent
president, who even many of his supporters acknowledge is awful (never
in history has a president with such low approval ratings been
re-elected), as it was a referendum on the kind of America a majority
of Americans want. It is a manifestation of the intense fear, paranoia
and uncompromising intolerance and xenophobia of many Americans, and is
reminiscent of the spirit of distrust and hate-mongering of Germans in
the early 1930s.
In 1933, the burning of the German Reichstag by a self-proclaimed Dutch
communist led to a massive suppression of civil liberties and a huge
shift in sympathies to the Nazi party, which effectively exploited the
event by introducing the Schutzhaft, a draconian law allowing arrest
and incarceration without charge or disclosure, much like the Bush
Patriot Act, and a new paramilitary anti-terrorist unit, the Gestapo,
not terribly different in its inception and initial authority from
Bush's department of Homeland Security. There are of course differences
of degree in these comparisons: The agreement of the German parliament
to suspend their constitution and allow Hitler (who was never elected
chancellor, and was only appointed to the post after a constitutional
crisis undid his more popular predecessor) to cancel future elections
and become chancellor for life. In 1933, Germany was suffering, along
with the rest of the world, from an horrendous depression, so fear and
desperation were relatively easy to stir up.
But my point is that the average German was largely untouched by the
suppression of human rights, the xenophobia and the arbitrary and
brutal treatment of minorities. It was only the more informed and
perceptive members of German society -- scientists and teachers and
artists, who were alarmed at what was happening. Until it was too late.
These informed and perceptive people left Germany in droves in the
1930s, realizing that the pendulum was not going to swing back, and
that the country was ripe for dictatorship and imperialism. This year,
it is the most informed and perceptive people in America who are
likewise, after a lifetime of struggle
to defend the values that made America great, realizing the dangers of
this radical right-wing shift, and the propensity for war, imperialism,
propagandizing, and the loss of liberty and democracy that comes with
it.
One Christian German, Sebastien Haffner, who fled to England in the mid-1930s, wrote about Germany in the 1930s before he left:
What saved me was... my nose. I have a fairly well developed figurative
sense of smell, or to put it differently, a sense of the worth (or
worthlessness!) of human, moral, political views and attitudes. Most
Germans unfortunately lack this sense almost completely. The cleverest
of them are capable of discussing themselves stupid with their
abstractions and deductions, when just using their noses would tell
them that something stinks.
It is interesting to note the reaction of Americans to fellow
countrymen who are fleeing to Canada. From the right, this is seen as
treasonous, disgraceful behaviour. There is almost a sense that
right-wingers think leaving is such a humiliation to a country that was
founded as a haven for immigrants seeking freedom from other repressive
tyrannies, that it should be illegal. At the very least, the message
from the right is "good riddance", and "don't expect to be allowed
back". From the left, the exodus is seen as a betrayal, or as an act of
cowardice, recklessness, or lack of perseverance. For decades, except
during the Vietnam War, more Canadians have left for the US than the
other way around. For the most part, Canadian emigrants are seen as
following their heart, or fleeing the weather justifiably, and remain
friends with those they left behind in Canada, and are welcome to
return. To what should we ascribe such a difference in attitude?
Things happen for a reason. The chart above shows the wide divergences
of values between Americans and Canadians, a rift that is growing much
wider very quickly. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, a self-avowed
moderate, yesterday expressed his pleasure with the Supreme Court of
Canada's decision that the entrenchment of the right of gays and
lesbians to equal marriage rights as heterosexual Canadians, in wholly
consistent with Canada's constitution. The fact that this decision came
a week after Bush's carefully staged visit to Canada is no coincidence.
There is no doubt that Bush, who sideswiped Martin during his visit by
publicly asking for Canada's support for its space weapons plans (which
Martin immediately repudiated), had expressed to Martin his displeasure
both with Canada's rights for gays and lesbians, and its plans to
decriminalize possession of marijuana. Both measures are fast-tracked
in Canada's parliament. Martin is clearly worried about what is
happening in the US, and has put a line in the sand declaring Canada's
political sovereignty and its collective repugnance of draconian
American laws that directly impinge on civil liberties.
In a radio program yesterday on CBC, a representative of the Canadian government put it starkly:
In a liberal democracy like
Canada, it is not appropriate to use a referendum to put decisions
about minority rights to a majority vote.
The government, she explained, has a responsibility
to protect the constitution, to stand up to the tyranny of the majority
for the rights of the dispossessed, disadvantaged and outnumbered.
While the gay and lesbian marriage bill will be a "free vote", Martin
made it clear that he would see, and thinks citizens would see, a no vote as an abrogation of that responsibility.
Contrast this with the cynicism in the US, where the government, either
unaware or uncaring of the responsibility of government to stand up for
the rights of minorities in a liberal democracy, routinely puts
anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-women's rights and other racist and
discriminatory initiatives on referendum ballots to pander to
intolerant voters, knowing full well that the judiciary will step in
and justifiably rule them unconstitutional. The politicians can then
callowly say "we tried, it's the court's fault 'family values' weren't
upheld". This disgraceful, dishonest, ignorant and dangerous behaviour
now threatens to push the US to the point where, like 1930s Germany,
the courts get stacked with similarly dishonest, disgraceful and
dangerous judges who have no qualms about trampling or even suspending
the constitution, wackos like Scalia and Thomas that Bush promises to
introduce more of until they are in a majority. What astonishes me in
the light of this terrifying eventuality is that so few Americans are fleeing to other countries before that happens.
Even the astute NYT seems to be naive about the dangers of this 'gaming' of the system. On Wednesday they lauded
Bush for earmarking $45 million to prosecute black-market gun crimes,
and chastized the Republican congress for removing the funding in its
latest 'omnibus' bill. Perhaps it simply didn't occur to the NYT that
Bush deliberately earmarked these funds knowing
that the congress would delete the funding, so he could get a few
liberal kudos while continuing to pander to the American gun nuts who
overwhelmingly support and help finance him.
I have predicted that by the end of this century our world will be
racked by a cascading series of catastrophes, but these will build to a
crescendo slowly, almost imperceptibly, until it's too late to respond
to them in a rational, coordinated, planned way. An imperialist
America, under increasingly oppressive rule, where all efforts are
focused on military adventures to access scarce resources and where the needs
of the rest of the world are ignored, might be the early warning
sign, exactly the kind of distraction that will prevent the world from
addressing the real global problems of our planet before they begin to
cascade in an endless series of crises, and become insoluble.
So, Americans, please do not be cowed or intimidated by those who would
call you names for thinking of getting out while the getting is good.
We need a lot of great minds working on some massive and intractable
human problems now. As long
as you remain in the US trying to bring about regime change, and even
cultural change, there in the country you have called home, you will be
endlessly distracted by people and governments who are on a dangerous
and probably inexorable track. No one would have thought ill of you for
leaving Germany in the 1930s, or even before. Those that left that
country then might have even saved the world from annihilation. Those
brave souls who are leaving America now, and moving to Canada or other countries, could play a no less important role in our struggling planet's future.
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MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
